Me, Myself, and Her

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen: Getaway Car

February was very cold in Hawkins. In fact, the first three months of the calendar year were really cold, and Max was struggling to deal with that.

"Let's just wait by the window until we see their cars pull up- no way I'm waiting outside," Max said, still cold even inside the arcade. Annie laughed and nodded in understanding. She was much more used to the cold weather and didn't mind it.

They stood inside and waited after their day at the arcade had come to an end. Holly was sick with the flu and Meghan had a list of chores, so the girls decided to do this instead. It was a blast- they were there almost the entire day, jumping around games and trying to beat the other's score (Max won nearly all of them).

"Summer here won't be as hot as California's I bet," Annie said.

Max laughed. "That's what I'm hoping for. You grow used to them, but even natives feel the brutal heat of the sun," she said. "But at least the winter wasn't like this! I don't know if I can get used to it."

Annie laughed and looked back out the window, seeing Steve's car pull up and park across the parking lot from the entrance. "Of course he chose one of the furthest spots," Annie commented, and both girls chuckled. "Do you want to wait in Steve's car?" she then asked, hoping they could extend their hangout even just a bit longer.

The girl smiled. "Sure! Might be a bit warmer in there anyway," she said. Max, closest to the door, led the way out and then started across the parking lot. Turning to face Annie as she walked, Max said, "I really don't..."

Annie looked over the redhead's shoulder and saw a car speeding into the parking lot, the two boys in the front head banging and not paying attention to where they were going.

Which was straight for them.

"Max!" Annie yelled, and stepped forward to pull her back as the car came barreling closer. As she tried to pull her and herself back, her foot got stuck and instead they fell. Her leg was still out in the road.

The car came speeding by and with it, a white hot, blinding pain. At first, Annie couldn't make a noise from pure shock. And then it really settled in and suddenly she was screaming in pain.

Max, who had awkwardly landed on Annie when they fell back, was scrambling to her knees to see what the hell happened, yelling out, "What? Oh my god what the hell just happened?" She looked down at Annie's leg and held in a gasp. It was definitely broken, closer to mangled.

Max immediately went about comforting Annie, who was trying to sit up a bit while letting out little screams of pain between breaths. "Holy shit, okay, Annie it's gonna be okay." Max immediately moved to be under Annie's head so she wasn't awkwardly sitting.

Annie looked and saw her leg and oh my god what the hell was that. Her screams turned to cries as she looked at it. "Oh my god!" she screamed and covered her mouth with her hands. She removed her hands and yelled. "My leg!"

Steve had heard the commotion and looked in his rearview mirror to see what was happening. He saw Max kneeling on the sidewalk with his sister's upper body in her lap and she moved her mouth (yelling?) He then looked over and saw a car that had stopped over to the side with the driver standing outside panicked looking.

It pieced together and Steve was suddenly pulling the keys out of his car and jumping out. "Annie!" he yelled. When he got closer, and saw the state of her leg, he changed directions to the driver. "Hey! Shithead!"

The shithead in question looked at the angry Steve storming towards him. Since he was standing in between his open car and the door, he had nowhere to go. Steve came up right in front of him and grabbed the front of his shirt and was nearly picking up him up off the ground.